If anyone sends me to a camp, there had better be some arts and crafts there. Just saying.

If you get sent to a camp it damn well better be the Oregon Camp for People Dogen Wants to Visit. You and a dozen other people will be relocated to a camp outside Portland where you will be taught how to wax a mustache, how to order a beer in the PNW, appreciation for obscure PNW bands that haven't come out yet, and how to tell when the local coffee shop has become too big and needs to be ditched for the newer, grungier place next door (hint: it's all in the pastries)._________________"Worse comes to worst, my people come first, but my tribe lives on every country on earth. I’ll do anything to protect them from hurt, the human race is what I serve." - Baba Brinkman

If anyone sends me to a camp, there had better be some arts and crafts there. Just saying.

If you get sent to a camp it damn well better be the Oregon Camp for People Dogen Wants to Visit. You and a dozen other people will be relocated to a camp outside Portland where you will be taught how to wax a mustache, how to order a beer in the PNW, appreciation for obscure PNW bands that haven't come out yet, and how to tell when the local coffee shop has become too big and needs to be ditched for the newer, grungier place next door (hint: it's all in the pastries).

But yeah I'd say both Ty Moore and Kshama Sawant has a shot at getting in. Of course these are local city council races, can't expect a two-party system to crack from the top. Although a presidential campaign might be a tool for getting the word out there you have to take it for what it is, it can't be a goal in itself.

In a local race the stakes are a bit different._________________A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more can one want? ~Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

If anyone sends me to a camp, there had better be some arts and crafts there. Just saying.

If you get sent to a camp it damn well better be the Oregon Camp for People Dogen Wants to Visit. You and a dozen other people will be relocated to a camp outside Portland where you will be taught how to wax a mustache, how to order a beer in the PNW, appreciation for obscure PNW bands that haven't come out yet, and how to tell when the local coffee shop has become too big and needs to be ditched for the newer, grungier place next door (hint: it's all in the pastries).

PNW 4 lyfe.

I am totally down with that. _________________[Stripeypants has enabled lurk mode.]

The United Nations now told the Dutch which most of us know already: Our favorite holiday, Sinterklaas, is racist. Of course most of us also don't want to hear it, we want to stick our fingers in our ears while we receive candy and gifts while promoting blackface and/or the idea of black people working for white men.

Sinterklaas always has been a huge problem area for us. It's our biggest national holiday and our own, but it has racist elements which of course go against the idea that Dutch are supposed to be so open and friendly. (fyi, lots of Dutch are racist but surprisingly progressive in the LGBT and equality sector.) Attempts have been made to change it but have been met with annoyance._________________No one is every truly alone with pizza.

The United Nations now told the Dutch which most of us know already: Our favorite holiday, Sinterklaas, is racist. Of course most of us also don't want to hear it, we want to stick our fingers in our ears while we receive candy and gifts while promoting blackface and/or the idea of black people working for white men.

Nuh-uh! A single person in the UN vented an uninformed opinion and now everyone's mad. I'm all for adapting zwarte piet, but since yesterday any serious debate has become overshadowed by reactions to a single person's unfairly reported view.

For example she's said she's "obliged to further investigate it", which is exactly what you want to hear from someone heading an investigative committee. But the most widely reported snippet has her saying "why do you need two santa clauses?" which makes it sound like she's pushing santa claus (who we don't have over here, except in coke commercials and american films) on an unwilling nation. That's just silly and its a shame the knee-jerk reaction to it overwhelmed the previous debate which for the first time actually looked like it was getting somewhere.

Finally, I don't think you should call it blackface, for the simple reason that it's a term laden with connotations from the wrong cultural background. Zwarte Piet dresses like a horribly stereotypical black person, which is obviously terrible and needs to change, but I don't think it has anything to do with US minstrel shows. Or does it?

I do consider it blackface because it looks very closely like it. Even if the idea behind it is not to make fun of black people, it can still easily be interpreted as such. This is why outsiders think it's racist and honestly acting all surprised is silly. We know Sinterklaas can look pretty dang racist.

Personally I'm a fan of just making Sinterklaas black so that all of this shit would be out of the water. Of course that might be asking for more shit. xD_________________No one is every truly alone with pizza.

Senator Feinstein (D-Tartarus) is pushing another version of CISPA, currently in the draft phase. Congress just will not rest until the Internet is controlled and censored, apparently._________________“Yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation”
yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation.

The laws would only apply to them. So if they're part of the 33% of the country who aren't Muslim, then they should be protected from Sharia law.

Although Sharia is still shitty and it still sucks for the 66% of the country.

They are Muslim. They're also pretty Westernised so they don't wear headscarves, drink alcohol, smoke etc. It's pretty unsettling. I wonder what they plan to do. Haven't heard from them yet._________________No one is every truly alone with pizza.